His book Liberal Fascism has turned out to be eerily prophetic. Of course Johah is descended from.......Jonah so whaddya expect. Here's the key riff:
Now, I don't mean to say that my book has turned out to be a work of stunning prophecy as an objective matter ("No, you just mean to imply it very, very, very strongly" -- The Couch). Opinions differ among reasonable people. But I've been shocked at how determined the events seem to be to prove my book right. Not on every point, to be sure. But on the basic nature of liberalism, it's kind of hard for me not to see Obama, his administration, and the intellectual climate defending them as a confirmation of my basic argument(s). I argued that liberalism is shot through with a deeply ideological faith in the power of government that masquerades as "pragmatism"; that liberalism is addicted to crisis and the moral equivalent of war; that liberalism is intellectually deracinated from its own tradition; that liberalism is in many respects a new religion (in the Voegelinian sense); that the default economic "doctrine" (tendency might be a better word) is corporatism; and so on. On all of these points I was proved right.
As for my historical arguments, I've been stunned that the efforts by the historical profession -- late, mean-spirited, and hysterical as they've been - to debunk them have been so weak (see here, for more on that).
Why am I bringing all of this up? I dunno. I still get so much grief for the book from the left, largely from people who haven't read it or refused to read it in good faith. Or maybe I'm just starved for topics for today's G-File. We'll never know.
No comments:
Post a Comment